The seed…

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” — Napoleon Hill

I had always believed this quote…

I had used this quote to benefit my life…

I had seen this quote be proven true over and over again…

Until…

In October of 2021 when my sweet wife Shelly passed away suddenly.

And my beliefs were challenged like never before.

“There’s NO WAY there can be an ‘equal or greater benefit’ to my wife of thirty years; the mother of my six children; the woman who I’d built my life around; who’d built with me a top one percent happy family and a top one percent happy marriage… passing away. THERE’S NO WAY!!! It’s not even possible.”

An “equal or greater benefit?” NO WAY!!!

My world was shattered. I was left without the love of my life. My kids having to grow up without their Mother – one of the sweetest, kindest, most feminine women who ever walked this earth. A women who beautified everything she touched.

As I read this quote for the ump-teenth time, I was disgusted. I turned away and said internally, “Obviously, Napoleon Hill had never experienced what I had.”

But…

But…

That didn’t mean I wouldn’t try to make the best of my circumstances. I’d also read somewhere this quote…

“We don’t have a right to the cards we believe we should have been dealt, rather we have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones we’re holding.”

“I can do THAT for sure.” I thought.

And I have… until about a month ago when I came across Napoleon Hill’s quote again…

And as I read it this time I read it differently. This time as I read it a different word JUMPED OUT at me.

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it… the SEED… of an equal or greater benefit.”

Did you catch that. The SEED?

I did. And it made me rethink the quote in it’s entirety.

A SEED… needs to be nurtured. A SEED is not the end result. A SEED is NOT a bloom. A SEED is not a flower or a tree. A SEED is not a fruit or vegetable. A SEED is the beginning.

A SEED without nurturing grows into… well… nothing.

Huh!?

I can’t expect an equal or greater event… if I do nothing. If I don’t nurture that SEED my expectation SHOULD be… well… nothing.

Isn’t that interesting?

Maybe when I read that quote previously the experience was too raw. Too fresh. Too painful. Maybe I just wasn’t ready.

Well… I’m ready now.

Maybe I’ll never (at least not in this life) see the bloom, the fruit, the tree. Maybe I’ll never (at least not in this life) experience an equal or greater benefit to the loss of Shelly.

But you can be REAL SURE that now… I’ll be NURTURING THAT SEED.

And maybe that’s where the beauty and glory REALLY is.

I’ll close this with another quote. And if you’re counting, this is number three.

“It’s NOT WHAT WE GET… in making and achieving our goals. It’s WHO WE BECOME.”